UP gears up for bypolls to four Assembly seats

Lucknow, March 20 (IANS) Along with the Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh will also witness bypolls to four Assembly seats -- Lucknow East, Dadraul in Shahjahanpur district, Gainsari in Balrampur district and Duddhi in Sonbhadra district.

Three of the four seats -- Lucknow East, Dadraul and Duddhi -- were held by the BJP while Gainsari was with the Samajwadi Party.

The election in the Lucknow East seat was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Ashutosh Tandon on November 9, 2023. A three-time MLA from the seat, Ashutosh Tandon -- son of former minister Lalji Tandon -- was a cabinet minister in the first government of Yogi Adityanath.

The seat has been a BJP stronghold but the party is yet to announce its candidate for the bypoll. Other parties have also not announced their candidates for the seat. Polling in Lucknow East Assembly constituency will be held on May 20, the fifth phase of the general elections.

Bypoll to the Dadraul Assembly constituency in Shahjahanpur district will take place on May 13 in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls. The Assembly seat became vacant following the death of BJP MLA Manvendra Singh on January 5 after a prolonged illness. He was 70.

Having been with the Congress for a long time, Manvendra Singh joined the BJP in 2017 and became an MLA from Dadraul. He retained his seat in the 2022 polls.

The voters of the Gainsari Assembly seat will exercise their franchise on May 25, the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls. The constituency in Balrampur district was declared vacant following the demise of sitting Samajwadi Party MLA Shiv Pratap Yadav on January 26 at the age of 74. Shiv Pratap Yadav had started his political career from Lok Dal and was a four-time MLA from Gainsari.

The bypolls to the Duddhi Assembly segment in Sonbhadra district will be held on June 1, the seventh phase of the general elections. The Assembly constituency, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, fell vacant following the disqualification of the BJP's Ram Dular Gond from the House after being convicted in a rape case.

Ram Dular Gond was sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a girl nine years ago. He was disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in December 2023.

“Our effort will be to win all four seats and the candidates will be announced soon,” said a BJP functionary. A Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesman said that they will also declare their candidates well in time.